The previous post was about present tense verbs. This post is about past tense verbs. Conceptually there’s not much new here, since it’s basically the same system as Classical Arabic. There are just some changes in the voweling of verbs.

Tip: final short vowels are either removed or lengthened

So for example qāla becomes qāl, kataba becomes katab, and so on. But katabti becomes katabtī.

Form I verbs with vowel -a-:

 

انا كتبت ana katabᵊt

  

نحنا كتبنا niħnā katabnā
 

انت كتبت inte katabᵊt

  

انتو كتبتو intu katabtū
 

انتي كتبتي inti katabtī

  
 

هو كتب huwwe katab

  

هن كتبو hinne katabū
 

هي كتبت hiyye katbit

  

 

There may be some ambiguity between the 1st person singular (“I”) and the 2nd person singular masculine (“you”), but context or an explicit pronoun will usually make that clear. Also notice the epenthetic vowel in katabᵊt. I talked about epenthetic vowels in this post. Basically think of it as a removable vowel. So for example you remove it in katabt il-waraʔa “I wrote the paper” because the word is immediately followed by another vowel.

Form I verbs with vowel -i-:

 

انا شربت ana ʃribᵊt

  

نحنا شربنا niħnā ʃribnā
 

انت شربت inte ʃribᵊt

  

انتو شربتو intu ʃribtū
 

انتي شربتي inti ʃribtī

  
 

هو شرب huwwe ʃirib

  

هن شربو hinne ʃirbū
 

هي شربت hiyye ʃirbit